A trip to God’s own country

Not everything on my trip back to India was about carnatic music. I had also decided to squeeze in a bit of sight-seeing, and had decided Kerala would be ideal – in particular Thiruvananthapuram a.k.a Trivandum. A lot of that had to do with nostalgic memories of the Padmanabhaswamy Temple during a visit lo…ng ago. I remember standing in the sanctum santorum waiting for the doors to open. It was a full house – mostly silent except for a few whispers. Suddenly, almost unexpectedly, the bells started ringing, almost everywhere, their sounds quickly enveloping the place. At the same time, the three doors to the sannidhi flung open, the chants of the priests filled the air as they did deeparadhana to show the idol, Lord Vishnu in his reclining form, very long (which is why there are three doors). It was indeed a special moment, and I still look back at it with wonder and intrigue.

So in the midst of attending all those concerts in Chennai, we took a 4-day break to go to Trivandrum and Kanyakumari. It was a great trip. I did not however experience the same ambiance at the temple this time – I must have attended during some special or auspicious time last time. However, the temple is still impressive – particularly the majestic corridors, the typical “kerala temple look”, and of course the impressive sannadhi. We also visited the Zoo, Kovalam beach and took a trip down to Kanyakumari via Suchindram.

I have posted a slide show of the photos from the trip below.

If many of the photos appear hazy and out of focus, there are a few possible reasons:

I suck at photography.

Many of them were taken from either a speeding train or a moving car.

My camera (a Nikon Coolpix L11) is a simple point-and-shoot one. I found out during the trip that while this camera handled outdoors fine, it sucked big time for indoors – almost unusable 😦 ! Hence all photos below are ones taken outdoors. Actually for outdoors, it seemed to do reasonably well even for those taken from a moving frame of a reference, which I thought was impressive for such a “simple camera”. The ISO settings are supposedly “automatic” and so when it works (outdoors), it is great, but when it doesn’t (indoors)- you are screwed!

The photos tagged From a speeding train are exactly that. It was just after break of dawn, and the Chennai-Trivandrum Express was speeding along the various towns of Kerala. As I was brushing my teeth, I was able to look outside the train windows next to the washroom and for the first time, get a view “unfettered” by the tinted glass of the AC sleeper coach. One look outside and I knew I had to get my camera, and I hope from the photos you can see why. I had no idea if my small digital camera can handle snaps taken from a speeding train, but I am surprised by the results. But they are no comparison to what eyes saw and “drank”.

The photos tagged From a moving car are also exactly that – taken during the Trivandrum-Suchindram-Kanyakumari car ride. Again, the results are surprising to me considering my expectations. They are far from professional, but I expected them to be all junk. Just like the view from the train, the view outside was divine – quite special, even though all I was doing was capturing just plain nature on a day just like any other day. That reminds me yet again as to how much beauty there is all around us – if only we looked! We do not necessarily need to go to exotic paradises to see something that catches our breath – that can happen even in your own town tomorrow!

The Suchindram temple is known for its architecture – although this famous “scene” from Hindu mythology (seen in the close-up) is not unique to that temple. No photos of Padmanabhaswamy temple – obviously could not take it inside, but also forgot to take snaps from the outside!

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4 Responses to “A trip to God’s own country”

These photos are so beautiful and I am jealous of you right now because you went to Kanyakumari and Kerala. That’s a place we have been wanting to go to for some time now, but something or the other kept coming up.
Now a renewed desire to go!

Arun: Thanks Nita – yes I can say that trip would definitely be worth it! It is obvious that there is a lot to see in the Kerala countryside.